radostar

radostar  1

radostar 02¡2008

2

the idea must spring from the vision, like the spark from the stone.

Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Swiss writer

a n t icipat ing one’s t ime editorial

To paraphrase Françoise Giroud, innovation consists in having a vision and in acting to realize it. Journalist and writer, this French woman of conviction and action, born in Geneva, used these words to describe the policy to which she is so resolutely committed. They apply perfectly to the entrepreneurial approach.

Whether it’s the creation of a product, the perfecting of materials or technical processes, the definition of an original commercial strategy or of a bold marketing initiative, the novelty comes purely from the idea. Without this, there can be no change; and without evolution, no new successes.

Vision alone is not enough to build the innovator. To be a visionary, as were the creators of the Swatch watch mentioned in the pages of this edition of rado star, requires many different qualities. It means most of all taking the risk to anticipate one’s time. Isn’t one of the meanings of the verb “to risk” precisely “to undertake”? That doesn’t happen, though, without hard work and courage.

Some maintain that the most important quality of a designer consists in confronting conformism. Knowing how to accept change, even if it implies taking decisions which can sometimes be painful, or on the contrary, knowing how to remain faithful to one’s convictions and decline the tempting invitation of the trend – ephemeral and fickle. Vision therefore becomes the vital lead, the generator of innovations and new standards. This is the true basis of the Rado approach, which has enabled our brand to create watches with a surface of absolute purity and beauty, able to defy time, thanks to their exemplary durability and hardness.

radostar  3

contents editorial 2    setting standards 4 the ultimate goal 6 the other side of the world 10 integral 12 the product is the hero 14 realising visions 22 top ten 24 a timeless watch 26 news & events 28 imprint 30

Luigi Pirandello (écrivain italien)

… C’est là ce qui fait avancer.

… jusqu’à ce que je trouve quelque chose qui me fasse changer d’idée…

Mon opinion représente une vision que j’ai…

4

The names and the dates of the story are easily summarized: rado was founded in 1957, the year the family watch movement factory of Schlup & Co. was renamed. But birth certificates, as any biographer knows, tell little of the real story. For the rado of today only really came to life in 1962, with the launch of the DiaStar, the world’s first scratchproof watch. Only now did rado first breathe the air it has long since made its own. With the launch of this extraordinary watch, rado’s unique philosophy sprang into life.

The first watch made of hard metal, the DiaStar was a revolutionary innovation, not just for rado but for the industry as a whole. How did this moment occur? Like many a revolution, it started with a mental leap, a spark of insight that started a fire. When the DiaStar hit the shelves, the watch industry made its products with tools of hard metals, technology that had been in existence for decades; yet the watches they produced were anything but hard. Whether steel, gold or, the most fragile of all, plate, they were acutely vulnerable to the bumps and scrapes of daily life. Within months if not days of wear, they accumulated dings and scratches – hardly the qualities of the gift of a lifetime.

And not, as far as rado was concerned, nearly good enough.

s ta nd a r ds

set ting

radostar 5

A technician approached rado with a radical remedy. The idea was as simple as it was brilliant.

He would turn the process on its head. The only substance hard enough to fashion steel and gold into watches was hard metal; so why not make hard metal watches?

As with many a radical idea, the genius was not so much that the idea was unthought of – hard metals had been around for decades – as it seemed unthinkable. No one could imagine working hard metals with the degree of accuracy, cost and dependability a watch demanded. Competitors said they would break or chip. For a time rado even tried selling the idea to others in the industry, but competitors and manufacturers alike shied away. So rado went it alone. Undeterred, with its faith in the future intact, rado made it happen.

And so the first hard metal watch was born, the fruit of an insight, and a transformative spark that would sweep across the industry.

In the decades since, the DiaStar has laid the template for a history crowded with innovations, of technologies invented and old technologies transformed and transplanted. Sapphire crystal already existed: rado improved and beautified it. In meeting the challenge of the first edge-to-edge crystal – how to dispense with a case without an ugly band of glue?

– came the solution of metalization. The answer, as beautiful as it is practical, is typical of the rado approach: high technology in the service of design.

In the world of watches, rado is the brand commonly bracketed as the company that stands apart from the herd, the rule-breaker. And this is certainly true. But what is forgotten is how often the herd has followed the outsider. rado’s many innovations are so widely imitated and borrowed that it is easy to overlook a simple truth: that it is the radicals and free-thinkers that dream the future. The proof of success is when the unconventional becomes conventional, just as it is the mark of the real innovator to spawn imitators.

Such is the paradox that runs through the past, present and future of rado, of radical innovation, of setting the standards that others follow. And follow they do: hard metals, the pioneering use of sapphire crystal, ceramics – all have been adopted by the industry. More than the string of patents, and design awards, here is the greatest testament to the strength of rado’s vision. It is at once a continual challenge to rado’s powers of innovation, and the greatest compliment imaginable. For imitation, as the saying goes, is the sincerest form of flattery.

6

the

u lt i m at e g o a l

Nos visions commencent avec nos désirs Audre Lord (poetesse americaine)

radostar 7

Obsessions can be magnificient. They can be creative or destructive, sublime or tragic, bizarre or brilliant.

They are, by definition, consuming, impossible to set aside or put out of mind. With Rado, a single obsession runs through the history of the company just as a single strand of dna runs through the life of an organism; and from that fertile fixation have sprung a string of watches and ideas without precedent or parallel.

The most perfect expression of this quest is to be found not in a shop, but in a museum. It is called the Vision 1, the prototype of the hardest watch in the world, Rado’s v10k. To make the Vision 1 over 4000 diamonds were ground and sintered to the watch at 1500 degrees Celsius, then fixed at colossal pressure – a force equivalent to the weight of a jumbo jet brought to bear on a coin. Needless to say, such perfection does not come cheap, in labor, conception, or materials. But the Vision 1 was not made to be worn, nor for that matter to be sold, for these concerns were of little importance: it is about the pure distillation of an idea, and testament to the fixation behind the Rado vision. Such a watch is not about a passing fashion. It is about sticking to your dreams.

Yet as the Vision 1 represents something new, the idea behind it is almost as old as Rado. From the moment of its inception to the present, Rado has never deviated from its ultimate goal of creating the hardest watch on earth. For five decades, Rado has sought a watch resistant to the bumps and scrapes of everyday wear and tear: the time-proof timepiece.

Throughout these years this, the ultimate goal has been at once a source of pride, a unique brand signature, and a challenge. It is the eternal dilemma of the perfectionist, for each solution poses new questions: How perfect is perfect enough?

The answers to that question have changed with the years. At the very start of the Rado story, the DiaStar was a pioneering step in both materials and design. Technically as much as stylistically, the lustrous tungsten- and titanium carbides of its distinctive broad oval bezel were a first. No other watch on earth was as hard, as durable, or as permanent in its perfection.

But where others saw an icon Rado saw unfinished business. For a company dedicated to perfection, the ultimate goal recedes with each new summit. Like the mountaineer in search of new heights,

each technological triumph raises the promise and prospect of others.

So it was that this fertile fixation on pushing back the boundaries of hardness spawned a string of innovations. From this moment the breakthroughs flowed forth. The existing technology of sapphire crystal was refined, improved, and ultimately transformed. It was Rado that pioneered the fashioning of sapphire crystal – previously utilized only as flat discs - into curves, and, still more impressive, domes.

Where others were content with the material’s aesthetic limitations, Rado set about improving the crystal’s clarity and luster. Next came the challenge of a scratchproof crystal from edge to edge. The response? The Glissière of 1976 was another industry first, a full, edge-less face of unbroken, burnished and sapphire crystal.

The next great step was the use of ceramic.

By the 1970s, scientists were starting to glimpse undreamt of possibilities of this ancient material. Tantalized by the prospects, it was Rado that brought ceramics to the watch industry. The Integral, launched in 1986, married metals and ceramic. With the launch of the Ceramica three years later, the world had its first watch with a bracelet, case and crown fashioned of high-tech ceramics. Perfectly matched to the wearer’s body temperature, light and completely anti-allergenic, it is a watch that looks as perfect after years of wear as it does in the jeweler’s display.

With the v10k Rado has given that quest its most perfect expression to date, the latest incarnation of the ongoing pursuit of hardness: the hardest watch in the world, for there is nothing harder than the diamonds that coat its surface. Once again, Rado has made the impossible a reality, and once again it has, in the purity of its solution, posed that perplexing, bewitching problem: where next?

The v10k, like its forebears, is a reminder that the future must first be believed before it can be seen. And who knows? It may be that the technological wonders of nanotechnology, which have made possible the perfect, immutable skin of the v10k, may one day offer more surprises. But of one thing we can be sure. If scientists ever find something harder than diamonds, Rado will be there.

8

radostar  9

10

other

the

side of t

In 1958 Dr Paul Lüthi set off for Japan with a suitcase full of watches, booked himself into the best hotel in town and started looking for an agent.

The prospects could not have been less promising.

Much of Tokyo was still in ruins from the recent war; the market for foreign watches was miniscule. Lüthi himself spoke no Japanese, so he asked the hotel receptionist to help compose an advertisement for the newspapers. Even in Switzerland, rado was a young and obscure brand; in Japan it was utterly unknown. And yet this trip was the beginning of an odyssey that continues to this day.

A departure that seemed at the time quixotic now looks, 50 years down the road, inspired. For in 1957, rado was only one name among many, in an industry crowded with storied names, history – and competition. The Swiss jewelers shied from a new and unknown brand that looked too radical, too outside the mould. The solution was typical of Dr Lüthi and the brand he created. He went where the others were not.

And the outcome? He returned from that first trip to Japan with a bagful of orders. The Asian economic miracle gathered pace; within years Asia accounted for 70 % of sales. A fledging company was on the way to becoming a global brand, launched from a springboard on the other side of the world.

Japan, however, was only the beginning. From Tokyo, Lüthi turned his footsteps to a destination that looked still more unpromising. A photograph from this time shows him in a battered, clunky old trishaw on the streets of Beijing, the driver looking stern and weather-beaten as he stares into the camera. Behind, in the background, is an expanse of concrete, the only color in the scene the flash of red from the cyclist’s armband. The grays speak of the drab realities of a country turning in on itself, shutting out the outside world; the reds are a reminder of the hard political realities of the time. It is an extraordinary image, and one that captures rado’s vision for promotion every bit as extraordinary as its accompanying vision in design.

For the two are opposite halves of a single philosophy: where others see obstacles, Lüthi saw ways around. At a time when China shut itself off from the world, turn-

radostar 11

it takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else Erma Bombeck (journaliste américaine)

he world ing its energies inwards and excluding all outsiders, Dr Lüthi looked in.

So it was that rado claimed for itself a mention in the history of modern China, as the first foreign company to post an advertisement (an honor jointly shared with Coca Cola). In the People’s Republic there was no such thing as a marketing company, promotional events or PR consultants: so rado posted billboards and notices. rado did not so much stand out from the crowd, for there were no others to stand apart from: it was out on its own.

It is a style that has marked rado’s approach to promotion around the world. In India there was no Cultural Revolution, but government protectionism was an equally formidable barrier. Before the opening of the Indian economy in the 1990s sales of foreign-made watches were strictly forbidden. rado, typically, was undeterred: where others could not see beyond the Keep Out sign, Dr Lüthi saw the potential of a billionstrong market that would, inevitably, one day open itself to the world; he saw, in a word, the future. And

so rado set about establishing service-centers around the country, the seeds of a 25-year investment that would in due course make rado watches a by-word for reliability. On travels abroad, more and more Indians bought rado, for it was the brand synonymous with reliability and style. Soon rado had established a name for itself as the watch that meant eternity. To this day rado is reaping the benefits of a vision, at one with its design, to look beyond.

Japan no longer feels so far or so foreign as it did in 1957; the cities once left shattered by war have blossomed into urban wonders. The days of Chairman Mao and Cultural Revolution have long since blown over, and with each year the emerging Chinese economy is ever more hungry for goods. India is a similar story.

The world changes, and grows ever smaller. But just as it is with rado’s unique approach to design, so it is with promotion. rado’s philosophy, of looking to the other side, of finding opportunities where others see obstacles – this, we can be sure, will endure.

12

nteg raffinement en toute simplicité

Classique et pourtant si contemporaine. Avec Integral, Rado introduisait la céramique dans la construction horlogère. Révolution pour un confort inédit, une nouvelle sensualité. La collection qui porte son nom s’enrichit aujourd’hui de quatre nouveaux modèles aux proportions et lignes retravaillées. Soulignent le raffinement de cette montre d’une belle simplicité qui se porte au poignet comme une subtile évidence.

Légèrement incurvée, la glace saphir métallisée fusionne avec le cadran et recouvre intégralement le boîtier au galbe accentué. Sous son éclat, seules les aiguilles et une date à six heure affichent le temps avec sobriété que quelques index précisent parfois.

Dans sa version toute céramique, le modèle arbore un bracelet élargi aux fins maillons qui confèrent à la pièce sa légendaire flexibilité. Brillance et fluidité continues font de la montre une manchette. Sur le cadran,

radostar 13

ral deux fois trois diamants en guise d’index en soulignent la linéarité. Avec Integral Gold Jubilé, la matière adopte une teinte dorée unique. La pièce se fait alors lumière. Merveilleusement monochrome. Avec Integral Super Jubilé, le cadran d’un noir profond contraste avec l’éclat métallique du bracelet. Nuit rectangulaire ceinte de diamants. Deux lignes étincelantes prolongent le bracelet. Sensation d’infini.

Dans sa version cuir, le modèle adopte un aspect graphique d’une saisissante pureté. Le boîtier apparaît de face comme deux traits d’or ou de diamants enserrant la glace. Linéaire légèreté. La structure fine et souple du bracelet renforce cette distinction naturelle, sans contrainte. Absolue et spontanée avec Integral Leather Black & Gold. Etincelante et raffinée avec Integral Leather Jubilé.

Un ensemble à la réalisation finement travaillée.

Elancée. Souple. Accessible.

14

the p r o d u c

Integral

t

radostar  15

i

s

16

the hero

radostar 17

‹ Original

18

‹ Ceramica

Sintra ›

radostar  19

20

Rado True ›

radostar  21

22

realising visions how to deal with visions

Eine Vision ist mehr als eine Idee: Es ist die Vorstellung eines zusammenhängenden Szenarios, das über konkrete einzelne Gegenstände hinausgeht. Ein neuer Trinkbecher ist keine Vision, wohl aber ein sparsamerer Umgang mit Wasser.

Von uns Designern werden heute solche Visionen erwartet. Wie wollen wir mit Visionen umgehen?

Zunächst sollte klar sein, daß die Vision wirklich unserer eigenen Phantasie entstammt. Sind wir nicht zu stark beeinflußt von Trends, oder Suggestionen durch andere? Und Vorsicht mit Visionen zu später Stunde…

Als nächstes wäre herauszufinden, ob es gute Fragen gibt, auf die unsere Vision eine Antwort liefert.

Egal, wer diese Fragen gestellt hat, oder ob wir sie erst noch stellen müssen. Was können die Menschen in Zukunft mit unserer Vision anfangen? Gewinnen wir dadurch etwas von allgemeinem Nutzen?

Möglicherweise wird unsere Vision mit bestehenden Verhältnissen nicht vereinbar erscheinen. Das kann an der Vision oder an den Verhältnissen liegen.

Wir sind frei, Konventionen und Disziplingrenzen zu überwinden, wenn wir unsere Mitmenschen dafür gewinnen.

radostar 23

Die Freiheit unserer Ideen endet vor der Freiheit anderer Menschen. Sind wir sicher, daß unsere Vision ohne wirtschaftliche, soziale, oder ökologische Beeinträchtigungen anderer Menschen zu verwirklichen ist?

Für die Folgen ihrer Verwirklichung sind wir verantwortlich.

Dass wir uns in der Wirklichkeit unserer Vision zunächst nicht auskennen, deutet darauf hin, daß wir Neuland betreten. Es liegt an uns, auf Sicherheit zu verzichten, einen ersten Schritt zu wagen und uns nach kundigen Begleitern vor Ort umzusehen. Bequem ist das nicht, aber wir lernen dabei.

Wenn die Verwirklichung unserer Vision leicht von der Hand geht, ist Vorsicht geboten: Haben wir uns in die erstbeste Idee verliebt? Gibt es fähige Menschen, die unser Vorhaben kritisch begleiten? Unsere Vision mit anderen Menschen zu teilen, macht ihre Verwirklichung einfacher und erfreulicher.

Wir bemühen uns in der Fakultät für Design und Künste der Freien Universität Bozen, Bedingungen für Leistungen zu schaffen, die ihrer Zeit voraus sind. Es liegt in der Natur der Sache, daß solche Leistungen erst nach einiger Zeit als visionär zu erkennen sind. Ein Projekt für die Zukunft. kuno prey

zum Beispiel Im Projekt Bolzano Beach designten Bozner Studierende keinen neuen Liegestuhl, sondern einen kompletten Strand. Und bauten ihn, mitten in Bozen, vor die Universität. Projektleiter Claudio Larcher schaufelt mit: links vorne, im grauen Shirt.

24

top ten visionaries in design 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10

slowfood — seasons our food with culture nils holger moormann — turns the carpenter’s world upside down nicolas hayek — simply told the time greenpeace — features the skeletons in our closets bruno danese & jaqueline vodoz — believe in quiet quality couchsurfing.org — smuggles hospitality into the future annemarie & lucius burckhardt — do not take the easy way out karlheinz brandenburg, nick sheridon — make books and cds obsolete luciano benetton — is concerned with more than fashion alberto alessi — brings corporate culture to the table

selected by Kuno Prey & Philipp Heinlein

radostar  25

4

8

2

3

1

10

9 7 6

5

26

a timeles

Le capital ne manque pas,

radostar  27

At the beginning of the eighties, increasingly more daring styles were appearing on the streets of large cities and a whole range of new tribes were profoundly redefining the meaning of cool or fun.

Design, music, the skateboard or graffiti emerged in completely unheard of ways of expression, thanks to the expansion of music shops and chains, reached an ever wider public. This trend was characterized by an effervescence and dynamism, which was in contrast with the situation in the Swiss watch industry during

s wat c h that same period. Already severely affected by the petrol crisis, the latter was experiencing the full blast of the acute competition resulting from the arrival of digital watches. Whole segments of the international clientele were clamoring for trendy cheap models, rather than traditional mechanical watches. Overtaken by the speed of change, many companies were obliged to close their doors. The watch industry was moribund and a whole region fell into a deep depression.

Consequently, it took a good deal of audacity and conviction to think about saving the know-how, rooted in ancestral traditions, and making them face up to the frivolous whims of the urban trends. Nevertheless, this was the exceptional challenge accepted by the members of the future Swatch development team. With its 51 components, its plastic case, its high standards of precision and its extremely interesting price, Swatch succeeding in galvanizing a concentration of technological ingenuity and esthetic audacity. , the innovative nature of this project disconcerted a sector renowned for its conservatism and a lot of sacrifice was needed to withstand its criticism and other ridicule. Convinced they were on the right track, a few diehards finally managed to impose their utopian conception, and history has since proved them right.

From its launch in 1983, the Swatch swept aside any trace of doubt embarking upon its legendary epic, selling over a million models by the end of its first year on the market. Versatile, universal, disruptive and provocative, the Swatch generated straight away an unprecedented craze, which has not stopped growing since. While reviving the Swiss watch industry and reinventing our relationship with time, it has acted as a prism in the process of understanding the esthetic and socio-cultural implications of the past twenty-five years.

Released from its purely functional role, the watch became an ideal indicator to make a statement of style or to express emotions. Following the example of an article of clothing or jewelry, the basic accessory became a communications vehicle, through which it was possible to pass very varied messages. Age sex or profession made no difference, there was always a design that could satisfy the exclusive desires or create the individual tastes for any occasion. By a curious reversal, time was subjected to random variations and became itself a total accessory. Model after model, collection after collection, the multi-colored visual universe of Swatch triggered this imperceptible mix favoring esthetic contemplation. Alongside artists such as Keith Haring, Kiki Picasso, Folon or Vivienne Westwood, Swatch indubitably helped to shape feelings in questions of art and design. In some cases, this swatchmania helped to reveal the passions lying hidden among its many collectors.

This fascination has reached unprecedented proportions with over 330 million models sold. Now 25 years later, Swatch is reconfirming its origins this year and relaunching its famous plastic watch.

Still as versatile and innovative, the chameleon watch goes on adapting with the same ease to the subtle codes, which dictate current trends. An absolute icon of contemporary culture, Swatch has already acquired the ultimate status, rather paradoxically for a time-measuring instrument, that of timelessness. 

ce qui manque c’est la vision Michael Milken (financier american)

28

news & events 4 1

2 1. Stockholm, Sweden – East Bar

3 2. New York, usa – I.D. Annual Design Review 2008 The 2008 Annual Design Review exhibition commemorated this year’s winners in a range of categories from best in product, furniture, graphic and environmental design. Rado was honored the highly esteemed 2008 Design Distinction Award for its Jasper Morrison-designed packaging of the Ceramica Chronograph Limited Edition.

5 3. Dubai, uae – Al Ras Ball room

4. Munich, Germany – Happy Hour @ Haus der Gegenwart

5. Sydney, Australia – ego Restaurant

radostar 29

6. Lausanne, Switzerland – My design District My Design Event invites professionals and the broad public to discover novelties of contemporary design.

Rado is proud to contribute with its Filmomatic to the 5th edition of My Design District to be held in the vibrating and upcoming Flon district in Lausanne.

7. Warsaw, Poland – Likus Concept Store

8. Czech Republic – Prag – dox: Launch of the Ceramica XL Collection

…

ve

t

to

o

kn

si s

er

er

ev

gn

ow

de

yt

…

ar

e

e

ar

as

hi

ng

.

sc

m

.

ic

cs

un

ti

m

ep

co

at i

ve

design, photography, illustration Faculty of Design and Art, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Luca Bresadola I, Carl Elkins USA, Joachim Falser I, Kathrin Kofler I, Maja Malina RS, Kerstin Meyer D

…

e

7.

E

an

ry t ta ked hing ke .A h it n a to d t s to bi he be ts y to m a d i s un ke cus de su se d rs r ta e th , in nd ey c l u d it b e to u i n g tt ch al er . ev e l t h ry e q th in ues g – tion an an d d s th d th e th on’ en y at t li

th ke to ey l o ta do ok in k g th e. T n’t em he kn for o se y a w an l v e r e ev s w s u pe er y ers nd rfe th by er ct ing th st in oo th . Th em s e d in eir m y k elve n fo s r e oth ow , si ig h e o nc r n l a to n w t e t h ng o u a g u e g i v e y ’r Th e ge an e ey s. d a n d a wa m an only ak ho r e e w d b tr y o elie ut ve wh . at th ey se e,

ar

24 /

w an

lz

imprint

…

bo

30

radostar magazine Number 57 © Rado Watch Co. Ltd. Ref.: 1495.005

Diese Ausgabe entstand in Zusammenarbeit mit der Fakultät für Design und Künste der Freien Universität Bozen, Italien.

Informationen über die Fakultät finden Sie unter: www.unibz.it

project direction Kuno Prey, Philipp Heinlein, Andreas Mierswa

ar

m es

fo re ng

.

th

ki

,

ta

od

ss

be

le

k

go

as

st

en

e

ev

th

im

re

et

e

so

ve

in

gs in

li

fe

.

kn

ow

ho

w

to

ec

id

e.

re … la ar

x. s e

pe br Or oa sp c i ec a d ia lis l ed i s - b ge as ne t s ra ed lis . ts .Y ou

d

…

co ns

t or ant th ly s e W se triv h i co i n g ch nd i s n s o fo r ’ t lut ans of i te on. wer n.

Th s, ey and fu s s ce r t an ain d fid ly d ge on t a ’t m nd a f r e ke

t u do Th nt wit ey il th h th do ey e lis ’re fir te sa st… n. tis Th fie ey d. do

re ad .

…

d

lo

An

…

radostar 31

you’re a designer 24 hours a day.

Kuno Prey